On January 27th, just days after being inaugurated the President of the United States, Donald Trump made an executive order. This order suspended the travel of people from six predominately Muslim countries into the United States for 120 days. The executive order itself states that the government and Donald Trump himself  are "Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States". Many people have mixed reviews of this specific order and why it is controversial. The order has received the nickname of "Muslim Ban", obviously something that hasn't been sitting well with people across the U.S. and other countries. But others believe that this is just an order to keep the people that do not agree with the U.S. constitution and what we stand for as a country, out. But the media has a big part in this issue as well. With the recent resurfacing of the term "fake news", there have been many news articles that have come out about this order. Many have used the term "Muslim Ban" to explain Trump's new order but some have just stuck to the order's name itself. The specific artifact I am taking a look at is a news article called "Why Trump's travel ban is still a Muslim ban". In using this artifact I will use Burke's Pentad to evaluate the article and the issues surrounding this specific topic. I believe that the Pentad will be of most significance to this artifact because it almost communicates itself as a storyline. It focuses on the background and the present situation of a piece of work and communicates its significance through those means. I believe this type of criticism is going to be most significant to me because of the nature of this executive order. The United States and the countries that have been listed in the order have had a past with each other. This will provide significant background information for the criticism and allow us to also look in the past while focusing on the present situation. Using the act, agent, agency, purpose, and scene I can draw conclusions from this piece of work and make an informed conclusion about the rhetoric used in this article. As I have explained, this method is most appropriate because of the context of the executive order. There is a lot of plot behind this order because of our relationship with these specific countries over the past couple of decades. This form of criticism will help me dissect the background, who did or said what,  and then eventually lead up to the present situation and the executive order that has been talked about so heavily.

Fake News

Donald Trump becoming the nations President has been the topic of conversation ever since he decided to run. No matter what political party you side with, you can agree this election has been one of most controversial and most talked about elections to date. But what about Trump gets people so riled up? Maybe it's his unfiltered thoughts or maybe even the fact that he stands tall and true to his beliefs. Trump is known by some Americans for being oppressive and very opinionated in nature. His supporters praise him and his enemies criticize with every move he makes. One thing that emerged during the Trump era was a term by the name of "fake news". Fake news, according to Google, is " a type of hoax or deliberate misinformation, be it via the traditional news media or via social media, with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically." So what does that mean? Anything that gets posted into the mainstream media is fake news? Obviously not, but everything you read isn't true. This sounds way too familiar, like something we were taught in 5th grade, so why are we still being reminded about it? Ever since Trump took office he's been using this term to stray people away from the news sources that haven't been portraying the correct information. He takes to Twitter and exposes prominent news media outlets such as NBC News and The New York Times, calling them "fake news", suggesting that topics they write about aren't as factual as people should assume. Obviously Trump will have some bias considering these are predominantly left-wing opinions on his presidency but Trump does shed some light and awareness to this issue. With that being said, Trump has some firm views that he sticks to which makes him so controversial. With so many scandals that came out during his candidacy, it was hard to ignore the harsh things Trump said about some groups of people. Calling Mexicans rapists, criminals, and drug dealers was one instance. "Grab her by the p****" was another. So there is no doubt that Trump has a history of targeting a group of individuals and stereotyping them as a whole. One of the first things Trump did at the start of his presidency was an executive to protect the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States. This executive order was revised from a previous one, stating that it would suspend the entry of refugees from seven predominately Muslim countries for 120 days. The order also excludes Iraq from the list of suspended countries. Many news media outlets and people around the country were outraged by this order and gave it the name "Muslim Ban". If the executive order that President Trump enacted only suspends these people for 120 days, why is it called a ban? Also, Trump understands that the nations that are suspended are predominately Muslim, but not all citizens are Muslim, so why is everyone stereotyping these countries as such? This is one example of fake news that has stirred up a lot of commotion concerning Trump. Twisting up the words executive order has messed up the meaning of the order itself.

The True Meaning

According to Google, the word beautiful is defined as pleasing the sense or mind aesthetically. Also Google defines beautiful as being “of very high standard; excellent”. If this is the definition of beautiful, why do so many girls and women of all ages think they’re not beautiful? Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty focuses on expanding the true meaning of beauty and what it really means for someone to be beautiful. By expanding these boundaries, women of all ages, races, ethnicities, sizes, and shapes can be encouraged to feel beautiful in their own skin. According to the website, only 2% of women worldwide would describe themselves as beautiful. To me, that’s a pretty astounding statistic. 2% of women. The whole entire world. Wow. Why is this so important? The answer is simple. Why should we allow 98% of the female population to feel this way? Women, just as equally as men are, are the future of this Earth. We should teach them to feel confident, to feel comfortable, to feel beautiful in their bodies. That is the main goal of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The project started in 2004, with public campaign ads and commercials to make women reflect on themselves. By using examples of everyday women in ads, it shows that other women can relate and find true beauty in themselves as well. Also, by showing these ads and commercials, it gets the female public involved, who is their main target audience. Although the campaign doesn’t have any many critics, it has one force that may alter women’s perceptions of themselves. Victoria’s Secret is a multimillion dollar company featuring overpriced lingerie and models that work way too hard to maintain their bodies. Although Victoria’s Secret doesn’t come right out and bash the Dove campaign, a lot of young girls are influenced by these models. Twitter blows up every time the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show comes on about how these models are “body goals” or how “perfect Candice” is. Then, every girl before, during, and after the show tries to find out how to get a body like one of the models and keep it. Along with girls, guys are drooling over these unattainable models, wishing they could just see one in person in their lifetime. Even models like Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, and Miranda Kerr are all fantasized by young and even older people. So why is this important and what does this teach young girls? It teaches young girls to be like the women they see on the front cover of these magazines or on the runways. It teaches them that they have to have a select beauty style, figure, face, and other qualities to be like these women. Instead of trying to change, Dove encourages young girls and women to embrace their natural beauty, to show off their true colors. What is more important for women? Trying to be like every other model and runway girl that they see on Instagram, or to be themselves, just the way they are. The strategy is to use empowered women that feel confident and comfortable in their skin and have them show off what it feels to enjoy life in your own skin. By using these women, the female population will slowly start to understand that it’s okay to be whoever you are. Driving the strategy are the people behind the Dove campaign, supporting the ads, the commercials, the pictures and making sure the campaign is as successful as it possibly can to make the female population comfortable in their own skin. By persuading the viewers to be happy with their bodies is one of the most important things, and Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty achieves that. They show women that being yourself and embracing every part of you is what is special about you and that is the true meaning of the word beautiful.

Phone Companies: The Battle of the Bars

We see and hear advertisements and infomercials all the time, whether that be on the internet, on Facebook or Twitter, or even on the radio. These ads can manipulate the audience to buy into whatever they're selling, giving out, or even the service they're providing. Some ads buy into popular culture by using what's going on in the news and world in their ad. This makes a successful ad because it keeps up with what's "cool", current, and convincing. These days, it may be uncommon to find someone that doesn't own a cell phone, even maybe a smart phone. With today's culture, having this luxury isn't so out of the ordinary. So what does having a phone have to do with commercials? Well I know we see advertisements all the time about "CUT YOUR BILL IN HALF" or "WE'LL PAY OFF YOUR OLD PLAN" and lets be honest, who wouldn't want this? (Obviously some maybe hefty payments and restrictions apply) but seriously doesn't this sound enticing? But then again why would you switch your current plan to a plan that doesn't have the best phone service, LTE coverage, or even texting service? So that's why Verizon came out with an ad recently comparing itself to three of the most popular phone companies; Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile. As you may have seen this ad before, Verizon had a sort of colorful ball racetrack. Each phone company had a different color, representing the number of votes they got nationwide when a study was conducted. This study tested wireless performance across the country; Verizon received 153 state wins, AT&T received 38 votes, Sprint got 2 votes, and lastly T-Mobile received 0. Also Verizon claims to have scored the highest in data, calls, speed, and reliability. So why does this matter? Well for the target audience, being both young, independent adults and older adults paying for this specific service, they would want the most bang for their buck. Why pay monthly for a service that doesn't fully satisfy your needs? The target audience watches these commercials to make decisions about what they're paying for and in return for what they're receiving. If these young and older adults are watching this Verizon ad, obviously this would spark a little interest in what Verizon offers. The highest votes in LTE coverage, calls, and speed? Why would you even look at the other companies? Well of course with any competition, the other side has to fight back. Sprint released an ad that had the same premise as the Verizon ad, mocking their "colorful ball" representation. They also explained that Verizon had stretched the truth and that Sprint has faster download speeds coverage than all three companies. Another phone company, and probably the most humorous, was T-Mobile's ad that came out on Super Bowl Sunday. Everyone remembers Steve Harvey's mistake this past year at the Miss Universe Pageant, and if you don't try to hold your laughs in. Steve Harvey was the host for the pageant, and at the final moment that everyone was waiting for he announced the wrong winner of the contest. After the runner-up took her victory lap around the stage, Mr. Harvey came back on stage, admitted he made a mistake, apologized about 10 times, and crowned the real winner. Watching this, I was completely shocked and couldn't help but feel bad and laugh at Mr. Harvey all at the same time. So here, T-Mobile took this mistake to their advantage. By using the same representation of the colorful balls, T-Mobile featured Steve Harvey in their ad and had him interrupt the commercial by saying he had to apologize again. He explains that Verizon had used last years numbers for their comparative study and that T-Mobile had doubled their LTE coverage and now has more LTE towers than Verizon. Steve then goes on to explain that it wasn't his fault that the information was wrong, it was Verizon's. He then says cheerfully that hes not taking responsibility for this and he didn't get it wrong this time. All of this is followed by a pink screen with the hashtag "#BALLOGIZE". What better way to get the audience involved then to start a trending topic on Twitter? T-Mobile targets their audience by using popular culture and what's going on in the news now, as I mentioned earlier. They do this by having Steve Harvey featured in their commercial because of how big he was talked about in the previous weeks. They tied in their topic by comparing him making a mistake at the pageant to Verizon making a mistake in numbers. Lastly, by using the hashtag, it allows people to interact with this topic and give their thoughts, comments, opinions about the commercial. This then spreads and spreads until everyone is aware of what's going on. Verizon and T-Mobile went head to head, both having the same target audience of young independent adults and also older adults such as parents. By using these commercials, they appeal to the public by offering the best service in the country. Verizon used facts, while T-Mobile used humor to counteract those facts. By using this back and forth we realize how influential and persuasive these commercials can really be.

Standarized Tests: For Students or Teachers?

Standardized testing is a type of testing that young children and teens go through during their time in school. Whether that be elementary school or high school, students face these grueling tests time in and out. Costs along with the staggering question of “do these tests work?” are some of the issues that both teachers and students face. As well as these concerns, one Mississippi Elementary school was now concerned about cheating among students. In 2014, the teachers in a Jackson, Mississippi school were under scrutiny for allegedly allowing and assisting their students with regards to cheating on standardized tests in classrooms. The principal of the school was supposedly telling teachers in a meeting to help students cheat on their tests. Three teachers, that weren’t named in fear of jeopardizing their teaching licenses, came out and spoke about the practices that were done at this school. Teachers described the cheating as waiting for everyone to finish a certain amount of questions before anyone can move on and also writing answers in the test booklet before filling in the Scantron. What does this do you may ask? Well, having students write their answers on the test booklet first, allowed teachers to go around and check their work before filling out the Scantron, one teacher explained. If an answer was incorrect, the teacher would alert them to change it. Having everyone work at the same pace would allow teachers to go around and check the answers before anyone moved on to the next section. And what if a student didn’t know the answer? Teachers were told to tell students to leave it blank and after the testing session, teachers were to fill out the missing questions on the student’s exams. So the question here is ethical or unethical? Do we allow teachers to assist students in an effort to raise testing scores? Or do we let students try on their own and let them put in their best effort themselves. This issue, I believe, is unethical. If the teachers were assisting the students and helping them cheat then why shouldn’t their parents be allowed to come in and help them? Obviously a joke but it really seems like an equivalent to this situation. Using teachers knowledge to help kids get ahead is taking the easy way out and it will only go so far, so why do it? Students will need to learn to decipher, analyze and solve problems on their own and how can they do that when they have a constant lifeline to give them the answer? The solution is to let them earn what they earn. Don’t alter the scores for your own benefit or to make your school more successful. So this issue of ethos comes into play greatly in this situation. Do the right thing, the ethical thing, and let students score on their own to give an accurate representation of their own ability. Students should always put their best, and their own, foot forward.